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Published 23 Mar, 2011 07:54am

Bomb blasts kill one, wound 11 in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Mine and bomb attacks targeting police in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday killed one person and wounded 11, including nine officers, police said.

In the first attack a donkey cart went over a mine buried by the roadside on the outskirts of Peshawar, police said.

“Both the donkey cart owner and donkey were killed. Basically the mine was planted to target police,” Kalam Khan, a senior police official, told AFP.

In the second incident a remote control bomb hit a police patrol pick-up, injuring 11, in the village of Darsamand, in Hangu district.

“Nine policemen and two passers-by were wounded in this bomb blast. Taliban militants are responsible for this attack,” Abdur Rashid Khan, district police chief told AFP by telephone.

Hangu lies 150 kilometres south of Peshawar and has a history of sectarian clashes between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shias.

The area borders the tribal regions of Kurram and Orakzai, where entrenched militants oppose jobs and education for women.

Militants in Pakistan’s northwest often target police and other law enforcement agencies and are engaged in a campaign of violence against security forces in the country.

More than 4,000 have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since 2007.

The bombings have been blamed on terror networks linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

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